Introduce a new checkbox and command-line option to inhibit use of
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / using.but
1 \define{versionidusing} \versionid $Id$
2
3 \C{using} Using PuTTY
4
5 This chapter provides a general introduction to some more advanced
6 features of PuTTY. For extreme detail and reference purposes,
7 \k{config} is likely to contain more information.
8
9 \H{using-session} During your session
10
11 A lot of PuTTY's complexity and features are in the configuration
12 panel. Once you have worked your way through that and started
13 a session, things should be reasonably simple after that.
14 Nevertheless, there are a few more useful features available.
15
16 \S{using-selection} Copying and pasting text
17
18 \I{copy and paste}Often in a PuTTY session you will find text on
19 your terminal screen which you want to type in again. Like most
20 other terminal emulators, PuTTY allows you to copy and paste the
21 text rather than having to type it again. Also, copy and paste uses
22 the \I{Windows clipboard}Windows \i{clipboard}, so that you can
23 paste (for example) URLs into a web browser, or paste from a word
24 processor or spreadsheet into your terminal session.
25
26 PuTTY's copy and paste works entirely with the \i{mouse}. In order
27 to copy text to the clipboard, you just click the \i{left mouse
28 button} in the \i{terminal window}, and drag to \I{selecting text}select
29 text. When you let go of the button, the text is \e{automatically}
30 copied to the clipboard. You do not need to press Ctrl-C or
31 Ctrl-Ins; in fact, if you do press Ctrl-C, PuTTY will send a Ctrl-C
32 character down your session to the server where it will probably
33 cause a process to be interrupted.
34
35 Pasting is done using the right button (or the middle mouse button,
36 if you have a \i{three-button mouse} and have set it up; see
37 \k{config-mouse}). (Pressing \i{Shift-Ins}, or selecting \q{Paste}
38 from the \I{right mouse button, with Ctrl}Ctrl+right-click
39 \i{context menu}, have the same effect.) When
40 you click the \i{right mouse button}, PuTTY will read whatever is in
41 the Windows clipboard and paste it into your session, \e{exactly} as
42 if it had been typed at the keyboard. (Therefore, be careful of
43 pasting formatted text into an editor that does automatic indenting;
44 you may find that the spaces pasted from the clipboard plus the
45 spaces added by the editor add up to too many spaces and ruin the
46 formatting. There is nothing PuTTY can do about this.)
47
48 If you \i{double-click} the left mouse button, PuTTY will
49 \I{selecting words}select a whole word. If you double-click, hold
50 down the second click, and drag the mouse, PuTTY will select a
51 sequence of whole words. (You can adjust precisely what PuTTY
52 considers to be part of a word; see \k{config-charclasses}.)
53 If you \e{triple}-click, or \i{triple-click} and drag, then
54 PuTTY will \I{selecting lines}select a whole line or sequence of lines.
55
56 If you want to select a \I{rectangular selection}rectangular region
57 instead of selecting to the end of each line, you can do this by
58 holding down Alt when you make your selection. (You can also
59 configure rectangular selection to be the default, and then holding
60 down Alt gives the normal behaviour instead. See
61 \k{config-rectselect} for details.)
62
63 If you have a \i{middle mouse button}, then you can use it to
64 \I{adjusting a selection}adjust an existing selection if you
65 selected something slightly wrong. (If you have configured the
66 middle mouse button to paste, then the right mouse button does this
67 instead.) Click the button on the screen, and you can pick up the
68 nearest end of the selection and drag it to somewhere else.
69
70 It's possible for the server to ask to \I{mouse reporting}handle mouse
71 clicks in the PuTTY window itself. If this happens, the \i{mouse pointer}
72 will turn into an arrow, and using the mouse to copy and paste will only
73 work if you hold down Shift. See \k{config-features-mouse} and
74 \k{config-mouseshift} for details of this feature and how to configure
75 it.
76
77 \S{using-scrollback} \I{scrollback}Scrolling the screen back
78
79 PuTTY keeps track of text that has scrolled up off the top of the
80 terminal. So if something appears on the screen that you want to
81 read, but it scrolls too fast and it's gone by the time you try to
82 look for it, you can use the \i{scrollbar} on the right side of the
83 window to look back up the session \i{history} and find it again.
84
85 As well as using the scrollbar, you can also page the scrollback up
86 and down by pressing \i{Shift-PgUp} and \i{Shift-PgDn}. You can
87 scroll a line at a time using \i{Ctrl-PgUp} and \i{Ctrl-PgDn}. These
88 are still available if you configure the scrollbar to be invisible.
89
90 By default the last 200 lines scrolled off the top are
91 preserved for you to look at. You can increase (or decrease) this
92 value using the configuration box; see \k{config-scrollback}.
93
94 \S{using-sysmenu} The \ii{System menu}
95
96 If you click the left mouse button on the icon in the top left
97 corner of PuTTY's terminal window, or click the right mouse button
98 on the title bar, you will see the standard Windows system menu
99 containing items like Minimise, Move, Size and Close.
100
101 PuTTY's system menu contains extra program features in addition to
102 the Windows standard options. These extra menu commands are
103 described below.
104
105 (These options are also available in a \i{context menu} brought up
106 by holding Ctrl and clicking with the right mouse button anywhere
107 in the \i{PuTTY window}.)
108
109 \S2{using-eventlog} The PuTTY \i{Event Log}
110
111 If you choose \q{Event Log} from the system menu, a small window
112 will pop up in which PuTTY logs significant events during the
113 connection. Most of the events in the log will probably take place
114 during session startup, but a few can occur at any point in the
115 session, and one or two occur right at the end.
116
117 You can use the mouse to select one or more lines of the Event Log,
118 and hit the Copy button to copy them to the \i{clipboard}. If you
119 are reporting a bug, it's often useful to paste the contents of the
120 Event Log into your bug report.
121
122 \S2{using-specials} \ii{Special commands}
123
124 Depending on the protocol used for the current session, there may be
125 a submenu of \q{special commands}. These are protocol-specific
126 tokens, such as a \i{\q{break} signal}, that can be sent down a
127 connection in addition to normal data. Their precise effect is usually
128 up to the server. Currently only Telnet and SSH have special commands.
129
130 The following \I{Telnet special commands}special commands are
131 available in Telnet:
132
133 \b \I{Are You There, Telnet special command}Are You There
134
135 \b \I{Break, Telnet special command}Break
136
137 \b \I{Synch, Telnet special command}Synch
138
139 \b \I{Erase Character, Telnet special command}Erase Character
140
141 \lcont{
142 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when the Backspace key is
143 pressed; see \k{config-telnetkey}.
144 }
145
146 \b \I{Erase Line, Telnet special command}Erase Line
147
148 \b \I{Go Ahead, Telnet special command}Go Ahead
149
150 \b \I{No Operation, Telnet special command}No Operation
151
152 \lcont{
153 Should have no effect.
154 }
155
156 \b \I{Abort Process, Telnet special command}Abort Process
157
158 \b \I{Abort Output, Telnet special command}Abort Output
159
160 \b \I{Interrupt Process, Telnet special command}Interrupt Process
161
162 \lcont{
163 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-C is typed; see
164 \k{config-telnetkey}.
165 }
166
167 \b \I{Suspend Process, Telnet special command}Suspend Process
168
169 \lcont{
170 PuTTY can also be configured to send this when Ctrl-Z is typed; see
171 \k{config-telnetkey}.
172 }
173
174 \b \I{End Of Record, Telnet special command}End Of Record
175
176 \b \I{End Of File, Telnet special command}End Of File
177
178 In an SSH connection, the following \I{SSH special commands}special
179 commands are available:
180
181 \b \I{IGNORE message, SSH special command}\I{No-op, in SSH}\ii{IGNORE message}
182
183 \lcont{
184 Should have no effect.
185 }
186
187 \b \I{Repeat key exchange, SSH special command}Repeat key exchange
188
189 \lcont{
190 Only available in SSH-2. Forces a \i{repeat key exchange} immediately (and
191 resets associated timers and counters). For more information about
192 repeat key exchanges, see \k{config-ssh-kex-rekey}.
193 }
194
195 \b \I{Break, SSH special command}Break
196
197 \lcont{
198 Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Optional
199 extension; may not be supported by server. PuTTY requests the server's
200 default break length.
201 }
202
203 \b \I{Signal, SSH special command}Signals (SIGINT, SIGTERM etc)
204
205 \lcont{
206 Only available in SSH-2, and only during a session. Sends various
207 POSIX signals. Not honoured by all servers.
208 }
209
210 \S2{using-newsession} Starting new sessions
211
212 PuTTY's system menu provides some shortcut ways to start new
213 sessions:
214
215 \b Selecting \i{\q{New Session}} will start a completely new
216 instance of PuTTY, and bring up the configuration box as normal.
217
218 \b Selecting \i{\q{Duplicate Session}} will start a session in a
219 new window with precisely the same options as your current one -
220 connecting to the same host using the same protocol, with all the
221 same terminal settings and everything.
222
223 \b In an inactive window, selecting \i{\q{Restart Session}} will
224 do the same as \q{Duplicate Session}, but in the current window.
225
226 \b The \i{\q{Saved Sessions} submenu} gives you quick access to any
227 sets of stored session details you have previously saved. See
228 \k{config-saving} for details of how to create saved sessions.
229
230 \S2{using-changesettings} \I{settings, changing}Changing your
231 session settings
232
233 If you select \i{\q{Change Settings}} from the system menu, PuTTY will
234 display a cut-down version of its initial configuration box. This
235 allows you to adjust most properties of your current session. You
236 can change the terminal size, the font, the actions of various
237 keypresses, the colours, and so on.
238
239 Some of the options that are available in the main configuration box
240 are not shown in the cut-down Change Settings box. These are usually
241 options which don't make sense to change in the middle of a session
242 (for example, you can't switch from SSH to Telnet in mid-session).
243
244 You can save the current settings to a saved session for future use
245 from this dialog box. See \k{config-saving} for more on saved
246 sessions.
247
248 \S2{using-copyall} \i{Copy All to Clipboard}
249
250 This system menu option provides a convenient way to copy the whole
251 contents of the terminal screen (up to the last nonempty line) and
252 scrollback to the \i{clipboard} in one go.
253
254 \S2{reset-terminal} \I{scrollback, clearing}Clearing and
255 \I{terminal, resetting}resetting the terminal
256
257 The \i{\q{Clear Scrollback}} option on the system menu tells PuTTY
258 to discard all the lines of text that have been kept after they
259 scrolled off the top of the screen. This might be useful, for
260 example, if you displayed sensitive information and wanted to make
261 sure nobody could look over your shoulder and see it. (Note that
262 this only prevents a casual user from using the scrollbar to view
263 the information; the text is not guaranteed not to still be in
264 PuTTY's memory.)
265
266 The \i{\q{Reset Terminal}} option causes a full reset of the
267 \i{terminal emulation}. A VT-series terminal is a complex piece of
268 software and can easily get into a state where all the text printed
269 becomes unreadable. (This can happen, for example, if you
270 accidentally output a binary file to your terminal.) If this
271 happens, selecting Reset Terminal should sort it out.
272
273 \S2{using-fullscreen} \ii{Full screen} mode
274
275 If you find the title bar on a maximised window to be ugly or
276 distracting, you can select Full Screen mode to maximise PuTTY
277 \q{even more}. When you select this, PuTTY will expand to fill the
278 whole screen and its borders, title bar and scrollbar will
279 disappear. (You can configure the scrollbar not to disappear in
280 full-screen mode if you want to keep it; see \k{config-scrollback}.)
281
282 When you are in full-screen mode, you can still access the \i{system
283 menu} if you click the left mouse button in the \e{extreme} top left
284 corner of the screen.
285
286 \H{using-logging} Creating a \i{log file} of your \I{session
287 log}session
288
289 For some purposes you may find you want to log everything that
290 appears on your screen. You can do this using the \q{Logging}
291 panel in the configuration box.
292
293 To begin a session log, select \q{Change Settings} from the system
294 menu and go to the Logging panel. Enter a log file name, and select
295 a logging mode. (You can log all session output including the
296 terminal \i{control sequence}s, or you can just log the printable text.
297 It depends what you want the log for.) Click \q{Apply} and your log
298 will be started. Later on, you can go back to the Logging panel and
299 select \q{Logging turned off completely} to stop logging; then PuTTY
300 will close the log file and you can safely read it.
301
302 See \k{config-logging} for more details and options.
303
304 \H{using-translation} Altering your \i{character set} configuration
305
306 If you find that special characters (\i{accented characters}, for
307 example, or \i{line-drawing characters}) are not being displayed
308 correctly in your PuTTY session, it may be that PuTTY is interpreting
309 the characters sent by the server according to the wrong \e{character
310 set}. There are a lot of different character sets available, so it's
311 entirely possible for this to happen.
312
313 If you click \q{Change Settings} and look at the \q{Translation}
314 panel, you should see a large number of character sets which you can
315 select, and other related options. Now all you need is to find out
316 which of them you want! (See \k{config-translation} for more
317 information.)
318
319 \H{using-x-forwarding} Using \i{X11 forwarding} in SSH
320
321 The SSH protocol has the ability to securely forward X Window System
322 applications over your encrypted SSH connection, so that you can run
323 an application on the SSH server machine and have it put its windows
324 up on your local machine without sending any X network traffic in
325 the clear.
326
327 In order to use this feature, you will need an X display server for
328 your Windows machine, such as Cygwin/X, X-Win32, or Exceed. This will probably
329 install itself as display number 0 on your local machine; if it
330 doesn't, the manual for the \i{X server} should tell you what it
331 does do.
332
333 You should then tick the \q{Enable X11 forwarding} box in the
334 Tunnels panel (see \k{config-ssh-x11}) before starting your SSH
335 session. The \i{\q{X display location}} box is blank by default, which
336 means that PuTTY will try to use a sensible default such as \c{:0},
337 which is the usual display location where your X server will be
338 installed. If that needs changing, then change it.
339
340 Now you should be able to log in to the SSH server as normal. To
341 check that X forwarding has been successfully negotiated during
342 connection startup, you can check the PuTTY Event Log (see
343 \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
344
345 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:01 Requesting X11 forwarding
346 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:02 X11 forwarding enabled
347
348 If the remote system is Unix or Unix-like, you should also be able
349 to see that the \i{\c{DISPLAY} environment variable} has been set to
350 point at display 10 or above on the SSH server machine itself:
351
352 \c fred@unixbox:~$ echo $DISPLAY
353 \c unixbox:10.0
354
355 If this works, you should then be able to run X applications in the
356 remote session and have them display their windows on your PC.
357
358 Note that if your PC X server requires \I{X11 authentication}authentication
359 to connect, then PuTTY cannot currently support it. If this is a problem for
360 you, you should mail the PuTTY authors \#{FIXME} and give details
361 (see \k{feedback}).
362
363 For more options relating to X11 forwarding, see \k{config-ssh-x11}.
364
365 \H{using-port-forwarding} Using \i{port forwarding} in SSH
366
367 The SSH protocol has the ability to forward arbitrary \i{network
368 connection}s over your encrypted SSH connection, to avoid the network
369 traffic being sent in clear. For example, you could use this to
370 connect from your home computer to a \i{POP-3} server on a remote
371 machine without your POP-3 password being visible to network
372 sniffers.
373
374 In order to use port forwarding to \I{local port forwarding}connect
375 from your local machine to a port on a remote server, you need to:
376
377 \b Choose a \i{port number} on your local machine where PuTTY should
378 listen for incoming connections. There are likely to be plenty of
379 unused port numbers above 3000. (You can also use a local loopback
380 address here; see below for more details.)
381
382 \b Now, before you start your SSH connection, go to the Tunnels
383 panel (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}). Make sure the \q{Local} radio
384 button is set. Enter the local port number into the \q{Source port}
385 box. Enter the destination host name and port number into the
386 \q{Destination} box, separated by a colon (for example,
387 \c{popserver.example.com:110} to connect to a POP-3 server).
388
389 \b Now click the \q{Add} button. The details of your port forwarding
390 should appear in the list box.
391
392 Now start your session and log in. (Port forwarding will not be
393 enabled until after you have logged in; otherwise it would be easy
394 to perform completely anonymous network attacks, and gain access to
395 anyone's virtual private network.) To check that PuTTY has set up
396 the port forwarding correctly, you can look at the PuTTY Event Log
397 (see \k{using-eventlog}). It should say something like this:
398
399 \c 2001-12-05 17:22:10 Local port 3110 forwarding to
400 \c popserver.example.com:110
401
402 Now if you connect to the source port number on your local PC, you
403 should find that it answers you exactly as if it were the service
404 running on the destination machine. So in this example, you could
405 then configure an e-mail client to use \c{localhost:3110} as a POP-3
406 server instead of \c{popserver.example.com:110}. (Of course, the
407 forwarding will stop happening when your PuTTY session closes down.)
408
409 You can also forward ports in the other direction: arrange for a
410 particular port number on the \e{server} machine to be \I{remote
411 port forwarding}forwarded back to your PC as a connection to a
412 service on your PC or near it.
413 To do this, just select the \q{Remote} radio button instead of the
414 \q{Local} one. The \q{Source port} box will now specify a port
415 number on the \e{server} (note that most servers will not allow you
416 to use \I{privileged port}port numbers under 1024 for this purpose).
417
418 An alternative way to forward local connections to remote hosts is
419 to use \I{dynamic port forwarding}dynamic SOCKS proxying. For
420 this, you will need to select the \q{Dynamic} radio button instead
421 of \q{Local}, and then you should not enter anything into the
422 \q{Destination} box (it will be ignored). This will cause PuTTY to
423 listen on the port you have specified, and provide a SOCKS proxy
424 service to any programs which connect to that port. So, in
425 particular, you can forward other PuTTY connections through it by
426 setting up the Proxy control panel (see \k{config-proxy} for
427 details).
428
429 The source port for a forwarded connection usually does not accept
430 connections from any machine except the \I{localhost}SSH client or
431 server machine itself (for local and remote forwardings respectively).
432 There are controls in the Tunnels panel to change this:
433
434 \b The \q{Local ports accept connections from other hosts} option
435 allows you to set up local-to-remote port forwardings (including
436 dynamic port forwardings) in such a way that machines other than
437 your client PC can connect to the forwarded port.
438
439 \b The \q{Remote ports do the same} option does the same thing for
440 remote-to-local port forwardings (so that machines other than the
441 SSH server machine can connect to the forwarded port.) Note that
442 this feature is only available in the SSH-2 protocol, and not all
443 SSH-2 servers honour it (in \i{OpenSSH}, for example, it's usually
444 disabled by default).
445
446 You can also specify an \i{IP address} to \I{listen address}listen
447 on. Typically a Windows machine can be asked to listen on any single
448 IP address in the \cw{127.*.*.*} range, and all of these are
449 \i{loopback address}es available only to the local machine. So if
450 you forward (for example) \c{127.0.0.5:79} to a remote machine's
451 \i\cw{finger} port, then you should be able to run commands such as
452 \c{finger fred@127.0.0.5}.
453 This can be useful if the program connecting to the forwarded port
454 doesn't allow you to change the port number it uses. This feature is
455 available for local-to-remote forwarded ports; SSH-1 is unable to
456 support it for remote-to-local ports, while SSH-2 can support it in
457 theory but servers will not necessarily cooperate.
458
459 (Note that if you're using Windows XP Service Pack 2, you may need
460 to obtain a fix from Microsoft in order to use addresses like
461 \cw{127.0.0.5} - see \k{faq-alternate-localhost}.)
462
463 \H{using-rawprot} Making \i{raw TCP connections}
464
465 A lot of \I{debugging Internet protocols}Internet protocols are
466 composed of commands and responses in plain text. For example,
467 \i{SMTP} (the protocol used to transfer e-mail), \i{NNTP} (the
468 protocol used to transfer Usenet news), and \i{HTTP} (the protocol
469 used to serve Web pages) all consist of commands in readable plain
470 text.
471
472 Sometimes it can be useful to connect directly to one of these
473 services and speak the protocol \q{by hand}, by typing protocol
474 commands and watching the responses. On Unix machines, you can do
475 this using the system's \c{telnet} command to connect to the right
476 port number. For example, \c{telnet mailserver.example.com 25} might
477 enable you to talk directly to the SMTP service running on a mail
478 server.
479
480 Although the Unix \c{telnet} program provides this functionality,
481 the protocol being used is not really Telnet. Really there is no
482 actual protocol at all; the bytes sent down the connection are
483 exactly the ones you type, and the bytes shown on the screen are
484 exactly the ones sent by the server. Unix \c{telnet} will attempt to
485 detect or guess whether the service it is talking to is a real
486 Telnet service or not; PuTTY prefers to be told for certain.
487
488 In order to make a debugging connection to a service of this type,
489 you simply select the fourth protocol name, \I{\q{Raw}
490 protocol}\q{Raw}, from the \q{Protocol} buttons in the \q{Session}
491 configuration panel. (See \k{config-hostname}.) You can then enter a
492 host name and a port number, and make the connection.
493
494 \H{using-cmdline} The PuTTY command line
495
496 PuTTY can be made to do various things without user intervention by
497 supplying \i{command-line arguments} (e.g., from a \i{command prompt
498 window}, or a \i{Windows shortcut}).
499
500 \S{using-cmdline-session} Starting a session from the command line
501
502 \I\c{-ssh}\I\c{-telnet}\I\c{-rlogin}\I\c{-raw}These options allow
503 you to bypass the configuration window and launch straight into a
504 session.
505
506 To start a connection to a server called \c{host}:
507
508 \c putty.exe [-ssh | -telnet | -rlogin | -raw] [user@]host
509
510 If this syntax is used, settings are taken from the \i{Default Settings}
511 (see \k{config-saving}); \c{user} overrides these settings if
512 supplied. Also, you can specify a protocol, which will override the
513 default protocol (see \k{using-cmdline-protocol}).
514
515 For telnet sessions, the following alternative syntax is supported
516 (this makes PuTTY suitable for use as a URL handler for \i{telnet
517 URLs} in web browsers):
518
519 \c putty.exe telnet://host[:port]/
520
521 In order to start an existing saved session called \c{sessionname},
522 use the \c{-load} option (described in \k{using-cmdline-load}).
523
524 \c putty.exe -load "session name"
525
526 \S{using-cleanup} \i\c{-cleanup}
527
528 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{options.cleanup}
529
530 If invoked with the \c{-cleanup} option, rather than running as
531 normal, PuTTY will remove its \I{removing registry entries}registry
532 entries and \i{random seed file} from the local machine (after
533 confirming with the user).
534
535 Note that on \i{multi-user systems}, \c{-cleanup} only removes
536 registry entries and files associated with the currently logged-in
537 user.
538
539 \S{using-general-opts} Standard command-line options
540
541 PuTTY and its associated tools support a range of command-line
542 options, most of which are consistent across all the tools. This
543 section lists the available options in all tools. Options which are
544 specific to a particular tool are covered in the chapter about that
545 tool.
546
547 \S2{using-cmdline-load} \i\c{-load}: load a saved session
548
549 \I{saved sessions, loading from command line}The \c{-load} option
550 causes PuTTY to load configuration details out of a saved session.
551 If these details include a host name, then this option is all you
552 need to make PuTTY start a session.
553
554 You need double quotes around the session name if it contains spaces.
555
556 If you want to create a \i{Windows shortcut} to start a PuTTY saved
557 session, this is the option you should use: your shortcut should
558 call something like
559
560 \c d:\path\to\putty.exe -load "my session"
561
562 (Note that PuTTY itself supports an alternative form of this option,
563 for backwards compatibility. If you execute \i\c{putty @sessionname}
564 it will have the same effect as \c{putty -load "sessionname"}. With
565 the \c{@} form, no double quotes are required, and the \c{@} sign
566 must be the very first thing on the command line. This form of the
567 option is deprecated.)
568
569 \S2{using-cmdline-protocol} Selecting a protocol: \c{-ssh},
570 \c{-telnet}, \c{-rlogin}, \c{-raw}
571
572 To choose which protocol you want to connect with, you can use one
573 of these options:
574
575 \b \i\c{-ssh} selects the SSH protocol.
576
577 \b \i\c{-telnet} selects the Telnet protocol.
578
579 \b \i\c{-rlogin} selects the Rlogin protocol.
580
581 \b \i\c{-raw} selects the raw protocol.
582
583 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
584 PSFTP (which only work with the SSH protocol).
585
586 These options are equivalent to the \i{protocol selection} buttons
587 in the Session panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
588 \k{config-hostname}).
589
590 \S2{using-cmdline-v} \i\c{-v}: increase verbosity
591
592 \I{verbose mode}Most of the PuTTY tools can be made to tell you more
593 about what they are doing by supplying the \c{-v} option. If you are
594 having trouble when making a connection, or you're simply curious,
595 you can turn this switch on and hope to find out more about what is
596 happening.
597
598 \S2{using-cmdline-l} \i\c{-l}: specify a \i{login name}
599
600 You can specify the user name to log in as on the remote server
601 using the \c{-l} option. For example, \c{plink login.example.com -l
602 fred}.
603
604 These options are equivalent to the username selection box in the
605 Connection panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
606 \k{config-username}).
607
608 \S2{using-cmdline-portfwd} \I{-L-upper}\c{-L}, \I{-R-upper}\c{-R}
609 and \I{-D-upper}\c{-D}: set up \i{port forwardings}
610
611 As well as setting up port forwardings in the PuTTY configuration
612 (see \k{config-ssh-portfwd}), you can also set up forwardings on the
613 command line. The command-line options work just like the ones in
614 Unix \c{ssh} programs.
615
616 To \I{local port forwarding}forward a local port (say 5110) to a
617 remote destination (say \cw{popserver.example.com} port 110), you
618 can write something like one of these:
619
620 \c putty -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110 -load mysession
621 \c plink mysession -L 5110:popserver.example.com:110
622
623 To forward a \I{remote port forwarding}remote port to a local
624 destination, just use the \c{-R} option instead of \c{-L}:
625
626 \c putty -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23 -load mysession
627 \c plink mysession -R 5023:mytelnetserver.myhouse.org:23
628
629 To \I{listen address}specify an IP address for the listening end of the
630 tunnel, prepend it to the argument:
631
632 \c plink -L 127.0.0.5:23:localhost:23 myhost
633
634 To set up \I{dynamic port forwarding}SOCKS-based dynamic port
635 forwarding on a local port, use the \c{-D} option. For this one you
636 only have to pass the port number:
637
638 \c putty -D 4096 -load mysession
639
640 For general information on port forwarding, see
641 \k{using-port-forwarding}.
642
643 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
644 PSFTP.
645
646 \S2{using-cmdline-m} \i\c{-m}: \I{reading commands from a file}read
647 a remote command or script from a file
648
649 The \i\c{-m} option performs a similar function to the \q{\ii{Remote
650 command}} box in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
651 \k{config-command}). However, the \c{-m} option expects to be given
652 a local file name, and it will read a command from that file. On
653 most Unix systems, you can even put multiple lines in this file and
654 execute more than one command in sequence, or a whole shell script;
655 but this will not work on all servers (and is known not to work
656 with certain \q{embedded} servers such as routers).
657
658 This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
659 PSFTP.
660
661 \S2{using-cmdline-p} \I{-P-upper}\c{-P}: specify a \i{port number}
662
663 The \c{-P} option is used to specify the port number to connect to. If
664 you have a Telnet server running on port 9696 of a machine instead of
665 port 23, for example:
666
667 \c putty -telnet -P 9696 host.name
668 \c plink -telnet -P 9696 host.name
669
670 (Note that this option is more useful in Plink than in PuTTY,
671 because in PuTTY you can write \c{putty -telnet host.name 9696} in
672 any case.)
673
674 This option is equivalent to the port number control in the Session
675 panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-hostname}).
676
677 \S2{using-cmdline-pw} \i\c{-pw}: specify a \i{password}
678
679 A simple way to automate a remote login is to supply your password
680 on the command line. This is \e{not recommended} for reasons of
681 security. If you possibly can, we recommend you set up public-key
682 authentication instead. See \k{pubkey} for details.
683
684 Note that the \c{-pw} option only works when you are using the SSH
685 protocol. Due to fundamental limitations of Telnet and Rlogin, these
686 protocols do not support automated password authentication.
687
688 \S2{using-cmdline-agentauth} \i\c{-agent} and \i\c{-noagent}:
689 control use of Pageant for authentication
690
691 The \c{-agent} option turns on SSH authentication using Pageant, and
692 \c{-noagent} turns it off. These options are only meaningful if you
693 are using SSH.
694
695 See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}
696
697 These options are equivalent to the agent authentication checkbox in
698 the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
699 \k{config-ssh-tryagent}).
700
701 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
702 PSFTP.
703
704 \S2{using-cmdline-agent} \I{-A-upper}\c{-A} and \i\c{-a}: control \i{agent
705 forwarding}
706
707 The \c{-A} option turns on SSH agent forwarding, and \c{-a} turns it
708 off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
709
710 See \k{pageant} for general information on \i{Pageant}, and
711 \k{pageant-forward} for information on agent forwarding. Note that
712 there is a security risk involved with enabling this option; see
713 \k{pageant-security} for details.
714
715 These options are equivalent to the agent forwarding checkbox in the
716 Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-agentfwd}).
717
718 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
719 PSFTP.
720
721 \S2{using-cmdline-x11} \I{-X-upper}\c{-X} and \i\c{-x}: control \i{X11
722 forwarding}
723
724 The \c{-X} option turns on X11 forwarding in SSH, and \c{-x} turns
725 it off. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
726
727 For information on X11 forwarding, see \k{using-x-forwarding}.
728
729 These options are equivalent to the X11 forwarding checkbox in the
730 Tunnels panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
731 \k{config-ssh-x11}).
732
733 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
734 PSFTP.
735
736 \S2{using-cmdline-pty} \i\c{-t} and \I{-T-upper}\c{-T}: control
737 \i{pseudo-terminal allocation}
738
739 The \c{-t} option ensures PuTTY attempts to allocate a
740 pseudo-terminal at the server, and \c{-T} stops it from allocating
741 one. These options are only meaningful if you are using SSH.
742
743 These options are equivalent to the \q{Don't allocate a
744 pseudo-terminal} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY
745 configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-pty}).
746
747 These options are not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
748 PSFTP.
749
750 \S2{using-cmdline-noshell} \I{-N-upper}\c{-N}: suppress starting a
751 \I{suppressing remote shell}shell or command
752
753 The \c{-N} option prevents PuTTY from attempting to start a shell or
754 command on the remote server. You might want to use this option if
755 you are only using the SSH connection for port forwarding, and your
756 user account on the server does not have the ability to run a shell.
757
758 This feature is only available in SSH protocol version 2 (since the
759 version 1 protocol assumes you will always want to run a shell).
760
761 This option is equivalent to the \q{Don't start a shell or command
762 at all} checkbox in the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box
763 (see \k{config-ssh-noshell}).
764
765 This option is not available in the file transfer tools PSCP and
766 PSFTP.
767
768 \S2{using-cmdline-compress} \I{-C-upper}\c{-C}: enable \i{compression}
769
770 The \c{-C} option enables compression of the data sent across the
771 network. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
772
773 This option is equivalent to the \q{Enable compression} checkbox in
774 the SSH panel of the PuTTY configuration box (see
775 \k{config-ssh-comp}).
776
777 \S2{using-cmdline-sshprot} \i\c{-1} and \i\c{-2}: specify an \i{SSH
778 protocol version}
779
780 The \c{-1} and \c{-2} options force PuTTY to use version \I{SSH-1}1
781 or version \I{SSH-2}2 of the SSH protocol. These options are only
782 meaningful if you are using SSH.
783
784 These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred SSH
785 protocol version as \q{1 only} or \q{2 only} in the SSH panel of the
786 PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-ssh-prot}).
787
788 \S2{using-cmdline-ipversion} \i\c{-4} and \i\c{-6}: specify an
789 \i{Internet protocol version}
790
791 The \c{-4} and \c{-6} options force PuTTY to use the older Internet
792 protocol \i{IPv4} or the newer \i{IPv6}.
793
794 These options are equivalent to selecting your preferred Internet
795 protocol version as \q{IPv4} or \q{IPv6} in the Connection panel of
796 the PuTTY configuration box (see \k{config-address-family}).
797
798 \S2{using-cmdline-identity} \i\c{-i}: specify an SSH \i{private key}
799
800 The \c{-i} option allows you to specify the name of a private key
801 file in \c{*.\i{PPK}} format which PuTTY will use to authenticate with the
802 server. This option is only meaningful if you are using SSH.
803
804 For general information on \i{public-key authentication}, see
805 \k{pubkey}.
806
807 This option is equivalent to the \q{Private key file for
808 authentication} box in the Auth panel of the PuTTY configuration box
809 (see \k{config-ssh-privkey}).
810
811 \S2{using-cmdline-pgpfp} \i\c{-pgpfp}: display \i{PGP key fingerprint}s
812
813 This option causes the PuTTY tools not to run as normal, but instead
814 to display the fingerprints of the PuTTY PGP Master Keys, in order to
815 aid with \i{verifying new versions}. See \k{pgpkeys} for more information.